Minnesota’s Nick Bjugstad (27) scores past North Dakota goalie Aaron Dell in the first period of an NCAA college hockey game, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, in Grand Forks, N.D. Bjugstad scored twice in the first period as Minnesota won 6-2. (AP Photo/The Grand Forks Herald, John Stennes)

Scoring goals is the No. 1 job for the Gophers’ Nick Bjugstad, who is painfully aware that goals have been coming slowly of late.

Although the sophomore center ranks fifth in the nation with 25 goals, he has just four in his past 13 games, including one into an empty net.

“I’ve been in a little drought,” he said, “but luckily my team’s been pulling everybody through.”

The Gophers have won seven of their past nine games to earn a spot in college hockey’s Frozen Four opposite top-seeded Boston College. The teams meet in a semifinal game Thursday, April 5, in Tampa, Fla.

Bjugstad is focused on putting his scoring drought behind him.

“I want to bring it,” he said.

Teammate Nate Schmidt has noticed Bjugstad’s intensity as Minnesota prepares for its first trip to the Frozen Four in seven years.

“I think Nick is going to have a good weekend,” Schmidt said. “He knows that maybe this past week or two haven’t been his best games. He just knows that, moving forward, we need him.”

One of two first-team all-conference players, with goaltender Kent Patterson, on a Gophers team that has a 28-13-1 record, Bjugstad is a muscular, 6-foot-5 first-round NHL draft pick with a well-known Minnesota hockey name, which makes him the center of attention for opponents and fans alike.

His uncle Scott Bjugstad ranks eighth in total goals on the Gophers’ all-time list, scored three goals in six games for the United States during the 1984 Winter Olympics and then played 317 games in the NHL, including parts of five seasons for the Minnesota North Stars.

“When I was little, I knew he wore 27, so I always wanted to wear 27,” Nick Bjugstad said, explaining why he wears that sweater for the Gophers. “I was always a Gopher fan growing up. Either way, I think I probably would have probably come here if I had the opportunity. I saw he went through here and he loved it, and he really had a big voice in how I played growing up.”

Nick and his uncle got together this week to share stories about the North Stars’ reunion March 29 and the Wild’s game that night against the Florida Panthers.

They attended separately, each unaware the other would be there. Nick was at the Xcel Energy Center to see the Panthers, who picked him 19th overall in the 2010 draft, while Scott was there as one of more than 30 former North Stars introduced on the ice before the game.

The Gophers’ most valuable player for the 1982-83 season, Scott tells his nephew that there are few times better in life than the days of a college hockey player. Nick, 19, listens, but has made no decision about whether he might turn pro after this season.

“It’s a tough question. Obviously, I love the university,” he said. “I can’t say what I’m leaning towards at all; it’s just kind of up in the air. I’ll think about it in the summer. It’s a decision I don’t have to make right now.”

Minnesota’s leading scorer for much of the season after he was named college hockey’s national player of the month for his nine goals and four assists in eight games in November, Bjugstad, with 42 points, trails Erik Haula’s 48 and Kyle Rau’s 43 for the Gophers going into the Frozen Four.

“I’ve been getting chances; it just hasn’t been going in,” he said. “Guys go through slumps in the season. Erik Haula went through a slump for a while, and he just came out big during playoff time. This is my time, so to speak, to go through a slump, but our team’s really pulling through.”

Schmidt points out that Bjugstad receives extra attention from defenders because of his reputation, but that simply helps open up Rau and Zach Budish, the wingers on Bjugstad’s line.

“Whether the puck’s on his stick or not, he can have an impact on the game,” Schmidt said.

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